February 2019
Dear Friends,
After the euphoria of Christmas comes the inevitable dysphoria of January. Apparently the utter nadir is Blue Monday which is the third Monday of January, when the combination of Christmas debt, broken New Year resolutions, low motivation and the cold weather coincide to make for the perfect mood buster.
I certainly felt the same as I stepped off the aeroplane to a cloudy and cold Heathrow Terminal 2 after having spent nearly three weeks in sunny Zambia. We had a good holiday. We had such hot weather that three of our sons got sunburnt to varying degrees. We ate fresh fish from Lake Kariba. We met my sisters whom I hadn't seen for some time. We saw wildlife that is unique to Zambia. So, as we landed, all these experiences suddenly seemed like they had happened a lifetime ago. It was an unpleasant jolt to my system to go from Lusaka to Heathrow in a matter of hours. And it wasn't even Blue Monday yet.
To my chastisement, I remembered how last winter, I had encouraged parishioners at Silver Service to be thankful even for British weather and not be quick to complain. As hard as it is to believe, the weather that we get is a gift from God. For all things comes from him. As bad as the weather is, Heathrow certainly wasn't submerged under the Indonesian tsunami. But more than the gifts of this world, Jesus Christ, the gift of Christmas is not just for Christmas. He was given as a gift to the world at Christmas but to be enjoyed all year round. So, may you (and I) find the true joy of Christmas that is not just for Christmas. The joy that comes from receiving the eternal salvation of God by faith in Christ.
May you have God's joy on Blue Monday and every other Monday.
Kind regards,
Helkias Mapimhidze